Workouts for Men Over 40 – Exercise Guide – Week 3

Exercise Guide For Week 3

If you didn’t start there, I advise you to start with Week 1, then do Week 2 and then do this one – Week 3.

It’s not absolutely necessary, but the overall program follows a logical progression of exercise difficulty. You could do this set of exercises as a separate workout. No problem.

Here are the basics:

RULES

**Good Form– This is probably the most important rule. You need to understand how important this is. Your success in gaining muscle and not injuring yourself is tied to how well you perform each exercise with the correct form.

**Do Not Rest more than a minute (60 sec) to a minute and a half(90 sec) between each set.

**Do Not Rest more than two minutes between each exercise.

**Ask For Help from a fellow gym goer if you need a spot or you want clarification about an exercise. Everyone is happy to help you. You might even get a gym trainer to help you. 🙂

**Concentrate on the muscles that you are working out. Think about the actual muscle you’re working and make sure that you are putting stress on that muscle or muscle group.

**Don’t Do Lessthan is what is required by your workout schedule. This will require mental dedication. It’s important to complete every workout by doing every exercise to your best ability. It’s not always easy.

TRIANGLE TECHNIQUE

The Triangle Technique is a technique that I have developed over the years, as I’ve tried different exercises to help me get bigger and stronger. It’s been a trial and error process that has finally produced a technique that I know works for me and others who are hard-gainers.

Easy-gainer guys can do almost anything and gain muscle. Those of us with more challenging body types have to use methods that break through the normal advice of gym trainers and muscle magazines.

Get the details here, but for now, the basics are as follows:

Progressively Lighter Weight

This is a technique that I have used that works for me and will most likely work for you.

It uses a different weight for every repetition and starts with a heavier weight and works down to a lighter weight.

For instance, if you were going to do a set of barbell bicep arm curls, you might start with 35 lbs. for the first set. Then for the second set, you’d take 5 lbs off and do the curl with 30 lbs. Then for the final and third set, you’d take off another 5 lbs and do a rep with 25 lbs. Don’t let switching weights cause you to take too much time between each set.

More Exercises, Fewer Repetitions

I believe that the more variety you give your muscles, the better they respond to growth. Doing the same exercise too many times diminishes the effect of the exercise.

Based on this principle, The Triangle Technique, you will have you do a variety of exercises and only three sets of each exercise.

Most exercise programs will have you do four (4) to six (6) sets for each exercise. I believe that is too many and find that the more variety your muscles get, the stronger and bigger they get.

Go to Failure with Each Exercise

Many exercise routines will not ask you to go to failure, for fear that you will injure yourself, and especially guys over 40.

This is bad advice. If you want to add muscle, with all the associated benefits, you’re gonna have to push yourself to failure, or almost failure with every exercise.

The weight doesn’t matter so much, but the ideal is to pick a beginning weight that will allow you to do 6 to 8 repetitions for the first set. Remember, we’re gonna reduce the weight for the second and third set, so the beginning weight will be your heaviest weight.

Because you’re reducing the weight for each set, you should be able to do 6-8 repetitions for each set.

Then press back up. Be careful not to go too low or you risk injuring yourself.

Exercise 2 – Squats
Squats are the single most important lift you can do. They incorporate your entire body and focus the work on your glutes, hamstrings, and quads. I often use a Smith machine because I don’t workout with a partner who can spot me. A Smith machine is a good safe way to do squats.

I find the best technique is not to go below your upper legs being parallel to the floor. Anymore, you’re putting too much stress on your knees.

I even suggest half squats to start off. That works.

Exercise 3 – Calf Raise

Sit on the machine and place your toes on the lower portion of the platform provided with your heels extending off.

Place your lower thighs under the lever pad, which will need to be adjusted according to the height of your thighs.

Lift the lever slightly by pushing your heels up and release the safety bar.

Lower slowly and then raise back to the starting position.

Exercise 4 – Good Morning

First set the bar on a rack that best matches your height. Once the correct height is chosen and the bar is loaded, step under the bar and place the back of your shoulders under the bar.

Hold on to the bar using both arms on each side and lift it off the rack by first pushing with your legs and at the same time straightening your body.

Step away from the rack and position your legs using a shoulder-width stance.
Keep your head up, looking up at all times.

Keeping your legs stationary, move your body forward by bending at the hips. Lower your torso until it is almost parallel with the floor. Sometimes going too far will cause injury, so don’t go any lower than what feels like you’re getting a good workout.

Begin to raise the bar as you exhale by elevating your body back to the starting position.

This exercise can also be performed inside a squat rack for safety purposes.

WEEK 3- Workout Day 3 – Upper Body

During Week 3, you are going to repeat Day 1 routine on Day 3.

Exact same workout as you did on Day 1

WEEK 3 – Workout Day 4 – Lower Body

During Week 3 your Day 4 is going to be the exact same as your Day 2 routine.

During this week, you’re going to workout 4 days, so that means a Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday schedule. OR a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday schedule.

SUMMARY

You’ve now done three weeks of a four (4) week program.

What I might suggest is that you do two (2) weeks of this program, as I’ve suggested for the previous two (2) weeks of workouts. I think it makes some sense depending on your level of experience.

It can’t hurt, and it might be good to repeat the same week. It was a good idea for the previous 2 weeks. It’s certainly not mandatory, and you can go right on to WEEK 4.

6 Comments

Great workout plan! Usually good workout plans by fitness trainers cost money, it’s great your putting a free fitness plan together. I’m definitely going to try your 4 week plan. You also used some very interesting exercises I didn’t even knew about, so a lot for me to try out in my future workouts.

thanks so much for the comments. I think we all drift into resting too much in between sets. I used to set a timer, and probably should go back to that. It “ups” your workout when you’re not resting too much. It even will give you a little cardio workout if you adhere to a strict workout time schedule.

Loving it,
& the way you have set deadlift as #1 exercise – The King of all lifts, & one of my favorites.

I’m also a firm believer, the more variety we give to our muscles, the better they respond to growth.
That’s the trick with our bodies – They adapt, & they do so very quickly. Don’t they?
What was once difficult, becomes comfortable, so we have to be inventive & creative to approach muscles from new angle every once in a while.

Life begins where comfort zone ends..

When it comes to having rest between sets… the one little piece of advice I’d give to most folks, is to just put their smartphones away, quickly.
With that toy, 1 minute becomes 5 minutes before you even know it – Been there done that.

Modern society, modern hazards you know, hehe..

Really appreciate the advice you have here!
There’s always something new to learn about when it comes to fitness, never a dull moment..

I find this exercise guide effective
& I’m more than willing to share this article, to get a positive word out there..